Saturday we ran another ¾ day charter with Snook, Redfish and Trout our main targets. With Tony from Mercedes Benz back on board I knew it would be a fun filled trip. Gathering bait Saturday morning was about as simple as it gets. Two tosses of the net and the live well were full of scaled sardines.
Targeting mangrove islands on Tampa Bay’s eastern shoreline once again proved the place to be. With an incoming tide early the snook action was quirky. The bite would turn on for ten minutes then stop for ten minutes. It was wide open action then quiet. Chumming live baits were needed to keep the action going. Snook 20-24” would fire up and it was game on. We sat on one location and took 10 snook, several redfish and trout completing a Tampa Bay Slam.
A giant school of Jacks came within feet of the boat, there had to be 500 Jacks. Live baits were immediately inhaled by some very nice size jacks. Most of the Jacks were 8-10 pounds and fought like a fish much larger. Mackerel and Ladyfish also got in the action.
We changed gears and ran out to the Egmont ship channel looking for Bonita. Schools of blitzing Little Tunny were scattered and hard to target. Heavy boat traffic and the Bonita schools very skittish. We switched to catching trout off Pinellas Point. Next stop was a grouper dock; we landed one 18” gag and lost a much bigger fish. Beautiful morning, Slam accomplished its all good.
